Mary Mack facts for kids

Melody

"Mary Mack" ("Miss Mary Mack") is a clapping game played by children in English-speaking countries. It is first attested in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888), whose version was collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".

In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands in time to a rhyming song.

The same song is also used as a jumprope rhyme, although rarely so according to one source.

Rhyme

Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes;

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back. (or "Up and down her back back back")

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents, cents, cents

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

Who jumped the fence, fence, fence

They jumped so high, high, high

they reached the sky, sky, sky

And didn't (or never) come back, back, back

Till the 4th of July ly ly.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents more, more, more

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

They hit the floor floor floor

They jumped to the flow flow flow

they stubbed their toe toe toe

and that was the end end end

of the elephant show show show.

An alternate version, sung in Canada, includes the words:

She could not read, read, read

She could not write, write, write

But she could smoke, smoke, smoke

Her father’s pipe, pipe, pipe.

An alternate version, sung in the American South:

Mary Mack,

dressed in black,

silver buttons all down her back.

She combed her hair

and broke the comb

She's gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home

Gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home

Clap

A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows:

• pat arms across chest: Arms across chest
• pat thighs: Pat thighs
• clap hands: Clap hands
• clap right hands together: Clap right palms with partner
• clap left hands together: Clap left palms with partner
• clap both hand together

Clap both palms with partner

Another version:

• &: One palm up, one palm down
• 4: Clap both partners hands
• &: Clap own hands
• 1: Cross arms to chest
• 2: Slap thighs
• 3: Clap own hands

Another Version:

• 4: Pat thighs
• &: Clap hands
• 1: Clap partners right hand
• &: Clap hands
• &: Clap partners left hand
• &: Clap hands
• 2: Clap both partners hands
• &: Clap hands

Another Version:

• &: One palm up, one palm down
• 1: Clap both partners hands
• &: Reverse hands
• 2: Clap both partners hands
• &: Clap own hands
• 4: clap partners right hand
• &: clap hands
• 5: clap partners left hand
• &: clap hands
• 6: clap partners right hand
• &: clap hands

repeat

Possible origins

The first verse, the repetition, is also a riddle with the answer "coffin".

Early mentions of the part about the elephant do not include the part about Mary Mack.

Merrimack

The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. According to one theory, Mary Mack originally referred to the USS Merrimack, a United States warship of the mid-1800s named after the Merrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets. This may suggest that the first verse refers to the Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War.

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